Iron Heart
by IIICrewsalonian
Summary: Jarek-7 is an Exo Titan under the apprenticeship of Lord Saladin. The Iron Banner competitions have returned to the Tower, and Lord Saladin has brought Jarek with him. However, during his stay at the Tower, the Exo meets a very friendly Warlock named Tessica, or Tess as others call her. Jarek seems to have caught her eye, and now its up to her to try to soften his Iron Heart.
1. Introductions

"The Iron Banner calls Guardians to prove themselves in the Crucible. Their emissary waits in the Tower to reward those who excel."

Lord Saladin had finally arrived back to the tower. A day envied by most guardians. The Iron Banner is a limited time Crucible event, as most battle hardened Guardians knew. Unlike normal Crucible matches, level advantages were enabled meaning that weapons and armor had no limitations. It was all Hell in the Iron Banner competitions.

Lord Saladin also sold his signature armors, shaders, and weapons as he usually did. However, this time he brought someone with him. By his side stood a Titan with his arms crossed. He seemed even quieter than that of Lord Saladin. But by the way his armor looked, he was in no way a Lord of Iron. At least not yet.

The new Titan looked intently at an Iron Medallion that he held in the grasp of his thumb and index finger. A Hunter had thrown it at him, angry that he couldn't seem to win a damn match in the competitions. Complaining about all the deaths he had received. Pathetic.

"Is something bothering you, Jarek?" Saladin asked his Titan associate.

Jarek looked up. "Yes, Lord Saladin. Just in thought."

"You are always in thought." The Lord replied. He looked in Jarek's hand at the Medallion. "Another loss?"

"The Hunter who gave this to me was not happy. He lost and threw it at me." Jarek replied.

"Hunters… Always so brash. Do not worry, my metal friend. He will have his time. He will find even less luck in the Trials of Osiris with the attitude he has." Saladin said and looked up as a Warlock made her way towards him. "Are you ready for the Iron Banner, Warlock? It offers much suffering, but equal reward."

The Warlock, Awoken by race, seemed unsure. She touched her bottom lip with her finger in thought. Then she looks at Jarek, now seemingly more interested in him. "Hello? I haven't seen you here before."

Jarek looks up at the Awoken Warlock. His optics analyzed her quickly and nodded his head silently. "I am only here for my apprenticeship. I serve under Lord Saladin. Nothing more."

"I didn't ask why you were here, grim." She said with a soft smile. "Name's Tessica. But you can call me Tess."

"I am Jarek-7." The Titan replied then shifted his focus back to the medallion.

"Well…" Tess looks at Saladin and then his inventory. "I think I'll get a temp buff. Then I'll go for a few matches. That gauntlet set looks pretty spiffy."

 _Did she just call an Iron Regalia Glove set… Spiffy?_ The Titan asked himself. Hardly believing he just heard that sort of description about the ornate armor forged by the Lords of Iron beneath the Iron Banner. Jarek tried his best to not correct the choice wording the Warlock used and simply shook his head.

"Very well, Warlock. That will cost you one Mote of Light." Lord Saladin said and reached his hand out to receive the currency.

Tess dug around in her coat pocket and pulled out the particle of solid light and gave it to Saladin. "Here ya go! Thank you."

"Be brave and prosper well in the Iron Banner competitions. You will need all the luck you can get." Saladin said with a small nod.

The Warlock nods and gives a playful salute as she turned and ran off to the Hangar. Jarek watched the perky Warlock run off with seemingly no cares in the world. He looked down at the Medallion once again. He had a thought. This was no use to him. Perhaps she could put it to better use. He looks at Lord Saladin for a moment and took a step forward.

"With your permission, my Lord, I wish to give this Medallion to the Warlock." Jarek said.

"Granted. You do not need to ask me for leave. I am here all week. Return before the week is over is all I ask." Saladin replied.

"It shall be done, my Lord." Jarek said and left to try and catch the Warlock before she could leave the Tower.

Jarek ran past the Gunsmith, Banshee-44, on his way to the Hanger. He also caught a glimpse of Master Rahool's newest engram discoveries. However, he had no time to waste there. He needed to get the Medallion to the Warlock. He continued his sprint to the Hangar and looked around for the Warlock. Turns out, she wasn't getting in her ship. She was just purchasing a weapon from the Vanguard Quartermaster.

 _Thank the Traveler._ Jarek said to himself and slowed his pace to a brisk walk. "Warlock!"

Tess turns and sees Jarek. "Oh. Yes? Did I forget something?"

"No. I just wish to give this to you. A token to aid you're battles in the Iron Banner." Jarek replied and lifted the medallion into view. "These are gained for each loss and you can carry up to five. Each will count as a bonus once you finally win a match. Incentive to win rather than lose."

"Oh… well… thank you." She said and smiles. She gently took the medallion from his hand. "I'll make sure I win. But… hmm… maybe I could repay you somehow for helping me." She tapped her chin in thought and smirked. How about… you run a Strike with me one day." She said more as a command rather than a question.

"I… well… I suppose. I have my duties with the Lords of Iron. But… Lord Saladin doesn't leave until the week is over. I believe we can make that happen." Jarek replied. Though he secretly had wanted to leave and tear apart a Fallen warrior. It had been a while since he was in the field after pledging his allegiance to the Iron Lords. They had him do non-stop training.

"Sounds great! Then maybe a raid afterwards! And then a couple Crucible matches for Lord Shaxx! It'll be fun!" Tess said like a giddy little child.

 _Awoken… always so eager to have fun. What have I gotten myself into?_ Jarek said with a small sigh. "Yes. Fun…"


	2. What the Devil?

Tess soon returned to Jarek after her successful results in the Iron Banner. With what little time she spent in the Crucible, Tess was able to achieve up to the third rank with her event standing. Thus earning her those "spiffy" gauntlets she had been eyeing since her run in with Jarek and Lord Saladin. And then came the question that Jarek had predicted.

"Are you ready for the Strike?!" Tess asked with some jubilance.

Jarek gave a small nod of his head. "Of course. I have been waiting for you to ask when you were ready."

"Aww, you were waiting for little ol' me?" Tess asked in a slight teasing voice.

Jarek soon realized the mistake that revealing his deep desire to go on the strike made him seem desperate. He groaned slightly in defeat. "In a way, I was." He said to try to save himself.

"Well, either way, I got word from the Vanguard that the Devils in the Cosmodrome are at it again. They've brought their god back. Some giant servitor. Name's Sepiks Prime. Nasty sucker. The first one was killed, but this one is rebuilt." Tess explained.

"I have heard of this Servitor. When shall we depart?" Jarek asked.

"Now! We can go now!" Tess said and grabbed Jarek's hand and tried to pull him along, but without any avail.

The Exo's weight kept him anchored in place. He simply watched her for a moment. "A strike with just two guardians? Shouldn't we look for a third to make sure that this strike will be successful?"

"Bah. Who needs three? I've got you. And you've got me. We can take 'em." Tess said confident in the thought of having a team of just her and him.

Jarek thinks about the possibilities that could go wrong. "I… suppose we could. But we would have to watch each other's backs closely in the Darkness Zones we stumble across. Our Ghosts can only do so much."

"Yeah… you're right." She said slightly looking down then smirks. "Guess we'l have to stay close then, huh?"

Jarek grumbled a bit at how she simply blew off his suggestion at safety. "Fine…"

"Alrighty now then! Let's get going!" Tess said and took off to the hangar once more.

Jarek looked at Saladin briefly. "I won't let any harm fall upon her, my Lord."

"I trust you with her life, Jarek. You're my best student. But now you are able to go on your own and prove yourself in the field. There is only so much I can teach you from the Iron Banner. Kill the machine god and make the Devils scream for mercy." Saladin said in reply.

"Yes, my Lord. It shall be done." Jarek replied and reached out with his hand, summoning his Ghost.

A small Ghost with gold and white markings appeared over his hand. Its stared at him a moment. "Transmat to the ship?" the small machine said with a feminine voice.

"Yes, Avira. If you please." Jarek replied Avira.

Avira disappeared and took Jarek with her. The two transmatted to his ship in the hangar and started up the engines. At the earliest chance, he left the hangar and went into orbit to wait for Tess. She was soon behind him and ready to head out to the Cosmodrome. Jarek punched in the coordinates for the Old Russian instillation and led the way. The two Guardians soared quickly to the location and were dropped off at a safe Guardian check point.

Tess stretched and checked her weapons instantaneously while Jarek pulled out Avira for the lay of the land.

"The Devils are in the same place they've always been. If they're anything, they're consistent." Avira said to Jarek.

"That's appreciated, Avira. Thank you. Place a waypoint on their Lair and we can be there within minutes, depending on the amount of resistance we'll face." Jarek replied and nodded at Avira before she disappeared.

Tess summoned her Sparrow and looks over at Jarek. "You done talking? Let's get going!"

"Yes. Yes. I'll be right with you." Jarek said and summoned his own Sparrow. "I'll lead the way. Avira has a waypoint."

"Great! Now come on!" Tess said and sped off in her Sparrow.

 _I can't believe her…_ Jarek thought to himself as he hit the booster on his Sparrow, launching himself forward to chase after Tess' Sparrow. _If anything, this Warlock will be the deactivation of me._

The two speed off through the Rocket Yard and head straight into the Refinery. After a team of Guardians first led a strike to kill Sepiks Prime, the path to the Devils' Lair was easier than predicted. A few Hive stragglers were found within the Refinery, but nothing the fireteam of two couldn't handle. Once they reached the Blast, the ruins of a Fallen Devil Walker was still seen at the entrance of the Lair.

Jarek looked around the Blast, but was concerned at the silence of the area. It was strangely empty. Once they stopped at the entrance, he quickly grabbed onto Tess' arm to keep her from running in blindly.

"Something isn't right. No Fallen have come to stop us yet." Jarek said and kept a hand on his rifle. "Keep your eyes open. The Fallen are known for such ambushes."

"But…" Tess tried to reply.

"No, Tessica. This is serious. If this Sepiks Reborn is more dangerous than it was last time, the entire House of Devils may be waiting inside and being fed Ether by this machine god!" Jarek replied. "We have to think about this. Form a plan."

Tess sighed. "Fine, fine Jarek." She said and rolled her eyes a bit and tapped her hand cannon on her hip. "So. What do we do?"

"I'll use my Ward of Dawn. From there, the Blessings that it provides will protect you from any incoming fire we receive. I'll take care of the enemies rushing us. You can focus fire on Sepiks." Jarek said. "Since its just us two, we need to play this safe."

"Alright. And I'll use a Nova Bomb on the Servitor when I get the chance?" Tess asked.

"Of course. Just be sure to be safe." Jarek said. "Now. Are you ready to take this thing out with our plan? And not run in there blindly?"

"Yeah… Sure." Tess said defeated.

"Then come on." Jarek said and slung his rifle to his back and grabbed for his machine gun and shouldered it.

The two carefully ascended the steps up to the Devils' Lair with Jarek taking point. He peeked around a corner quickly, catching a glimpse of the Servitor. Its spikes were still visibly apparent, but its eye was no longer purple in color. Instead, its reborn state gave it a violent looking red eye. It was, indeed, feeding the Fallen ether. The Dregs and Vandals surrounding the god were kneeling as usual, paying no attention to the Guardian that had just looked in. Jarek looks over at Tess.

"Dregs and Vandals mostly. I didn't see any Shanks or Captains. But be aware for any Skiffs that might come in to reinforce them when we attack." Jarek said. "I'll throw down my Ward of Dawn at the door and you throw all you have at the Servitor."

"You got that right." Tess replied and shouldered her larger than life rocket launcher, the widely coveted Gjallarhorn.

"How did-? Know what? I don't even care. Just take the thing out." Jarek said and threw down his Ward of Dawn and began to pick off Fallen one by one.

Tess smirked and targeted the Prime Servitor's eye and fired rocket after rocket at the machine, each time hitting its mark dead on. However, the machine didn't seem to budge. It simply turned to her and its red eye glowed dangerously. Jarek looks up, noticing the sudden red light that shown from the machine. He hit a Dreg quickly to disintegrate and activate his unbreakable Force Barrier and ran in front of Tess and wrapped himself around her. The Servitor then fired a powerful beam of blood red colored energy at the Exo's back. Jarek tried to keep Tess from the Servitor's deadly gaze and groaned in pain as his Force Barrier began to weaken. Tess looks behind her at the Ward and grabbed Jarek and used her Blink ability the quickly move them both inside the bubble of Void energy and laid Jarek against a wall.

"Jarek? Jarek, are you okay?" Tess said worried.

"That… has never happened before… What the hell just happened?" Jarek said and his back sparked with damage.

"I'm not sure. I've never seen a Servitor, even a Prime Servitor, do something like that before." Tess said and looked out from behind the wall quickly, only to have the Servitor simply staring at her. She pulled her head back in quickly. "Maybe… you were right about that third fireteam member…"

"You don't think?" Jarek said and grunted in pain. "Avira? Can you heal my wound?"

Avira appeared from thin air in front of Jarek. "Of course. Just hold still for a moment." Avira focuses her abilities to heal her fallen Guardian.

Tess then hears a horrid screaming sound. She looks outside and widens her eyes. "Traveler's light…"

"What is it?" Jarek asked.

"It's eating Dregs! They're being eaten by the Servitor!" Tess said in shock. "It's eating them and getting health from it!"

"That's… that's insane. Why would they let that happen?" Jarek said. "They're losing their forces if they feed the Servitor."

Tess watched in horror as the Dregs were being gorged upon by the reborn Sepiks. She couldn't help but to feel bad for them. They clearly didn't want it by the looks of it either. One tried to run away and looked up and saw the two Guardians, but as it reached out to them it screamed in pain and vanished before it could say anything.

"I can't just let it eat them all!" She said, horrified at the sight.

"Then kill them and end their misery!" Jarek said as he tried to ease the pain.

"Kill them?!" She said in shock.

"We do that anyways! Make it quick for them rather than let the thing eat them." Jarek replied.

Tess looks down a little in thought. "Okay…" She lifts her Fulcrum and looks at a poor Dreg.

The Dreg tried to back away and she comes around the corner and raises her hand cannon at it. It stares at her for a bit seemingly accepting what she was about to do. Tess put her finger on the trigger, but this seemed harder to do for some reason. She held her hand cannon there for a moment then lowered it. "Gah!" She said in annoyance and looks at the Dreg. "Come here!" She Blinks forward and grabs the alien then Blinks back to where Jarek was.

Jarek looked up in shock and reached for his weapon. "What the hell is that thing doing here?!"

"I couldn't just kill him! He could be an ally!" Tess replied.

"It's a pirate! A theif! Scum! Have you no mind as to what they did to us at the Battle of Twilight Gap?! They're murderers Tessica!" Jarek said angrily.

"I help you, help me." The Dreg said finally. "We can be friends, yes? I no longer wish to serve House Devils."

"You speak our language?" Jarek replied.

"Yes, yes. We must go. Leave House Devils lair." The Dreg said.

"I agree. Any longer and we'll be killed by the Servitor." Tess replied.

"High Servitor corrupted. Not reborn. Much hate in the machine." The Dreg said.

Jarek groaned. "Alright… fine. Let's just get out of here."

Tess looks at Avira and nods. "Get Jarek to his ship. Take him to the Tower. I'll take the Dreg to the Vestian Outpost. There, Variks might be able to help us. Meet us there when he's up to health."

"Understood Tesica." Avira replied and disappeared along with Jarek, leaving the area to head to the Tower.

Tessica was left and looked at the Dreg. "I pray you don't cause me any more trouble than you already have…" She said and her Ghost came up. "Let's get out of here." She told her Ghost and they disappeared into thin air.


End file.
